50 years after the Khmer Rouge seized power. Cambodian heritage and modernity, an exploration of music, dance and film

Fifty years after the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia in April 1975, causing in less than four years, beyond millions of deaths, a destruction of society as a whole: social fabric, traditions, religious practices, education, vocabulary purification and arts, the country has had to rebuild itself. Numerous commemorative events, conferences and round tables are taking place in France on the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer section at Inalco, through screenings and roundtables, is looking at how Cambodians are reviving the arts by reconnecting with the ransacked past and then evolving, In this case, modern music, which welcomed and happily adapted modern rhythms from abroad while retaining its traditional styles or modernizing them, and cinema, which had enjoyed a golden age from independence in 1953 to 1975, as well as the revival of the Royal Khmer Ballet, which the Cambodian state was able to highlight as a flagship emblem of its culture.

Program

• 2:30-4:10pm
  Angkorization of Apsara dance, lecture by NUT Suppya
• 5:30-7:00pm 
  Round-table Between Cambodia and France: transmission and diffusion of Khmer classical dance
  Moderator: Lucie Léa LABBÉ (Dr in social anthropology, ethnology)
  Speakers: NUT Suppya (Advisor to the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, lecturer at Inalco), Jean-Louis BERDOT (documentary film director), PRUM Amara (Khmer classical dancer, founder of indradevi.org), LENG Lucie (Association Ballet Classique Khmer)